I recently noticed a ghost bike chained to the railings at the top of Streatham Hill at the junction with the South Circular and Brixton Hill. Ghost bikes are old bikes which have been spray painted white and are placed at sites where cyclists have been killed in road accidents. The idea started in America in 2003 but soon spread around the world. This is one of ten ghost bikes that were put up around London about a year ago by a cyclist known as Greasy Slag.
This map of cycling black spots includes a few spots dotted around that junction as well as many more down Streatham High road. This is a reminder of how badly suited Streatham High Road is to cycling and how short sighted it is not to include Streatham in the cycle super highway plans. The A23 is a vital route in to London and in Streatham we actually have wide enough roads to accomodate decent segregated cycle highways, yet the recent road improvements in Streatham and Brixton have done nothing to address this. If you want to learn more about the problems with cycling in London there is a very good blog by an Englishman, now living in Holland, called David Hembrow.
It came as something of a surprise to me yesterday to hear Streatham’s Councillor Mark bennett tweeting from a meeting (that rhyme was unintentional by the way) with Glentoran, the owners of the Megbowl site. They were presenting their latest plans for the redevelopment, which are due to go before a Council planning meeting in April, I believe. Many of us Megabowl watchers expected Glentoran to pull out and sell up, after their last proposal (number 3) was rejected. They threatened as much prior to that decision but it turns out it was all talk. In fact it could be argued that Lambeth have played this quite well, as with each rejection, Glentoran return with a proposal that’s slightly smaller and more in keeping with it’s environment. It sounded like they came close to having permission granted last time so this could well be the one that finally gets accepted. According to Mark Bennett they were met with strong support.
All the documents for the application can be downloaded online here. They’re quite extensive and more than a little confusing. They contain more images of their previous proposals than of their current one. The significant points, as far as I could tell, are: The height has been scaled down (by how much is unclear); more of The Megabowl facade has been retained (including the side return); there are 19 fewer residential units but the same retail space (30,000 Sq ft, with the possibility of a mezzanine level and with more basement excavation to help attract larger retailers like John Lewis); there will also be a community theatre, exhibition & cafe space on the corner of Sternhold Avenue and Blairderry Road.
The proposed cafe, exhibition & theatre space.
My favorite parts of the documentation were references to Caesars, and the accompanying pictures, which attempted to show the obscene behaviour that would be stamped out if permission for the development is granted.
The proposals are not very different in appearance to the previous efforts so anyone hoping for a brand new, beautiful vision of Streatham Hill will be disappointed. However they have attempted to answer many of the criticisms they’ve encountered up until now, so it’s now down to Lambeth to decide whether they’ve done enough.
This Saturday 27th Feb at 11am there will be a community protest against Tesco outside their Streatham Hill Tesco Metro branch. It is in response to Tesco’s behaviour over the Streatham Hub project. For anyone who doesn’t already know about The Hub situation, in a nutshell, Tesco bought a huge swathe of land, which includes the leisure centre and ice rink, about ten years ago. They were granted planning permission to build a huge superstore, car park, and residential flats in return for also funding the building of a new leisure centre and ice rink. All these years later they have done nothing with the land and refuse to say when, if ever, they will start work. In the meantime the existing leisure centre has closed and the ice rink is crumbling. It is a sorry state of affairs, making Saturdays protest long overdue. However, as I researched other Tesco protests, what struck me was that all previous protests have either been by people opposed to Tesco’s business practices or by people opposed to the opening of a Tesco superstore in their town. Our protest must be unique in that it is by residents desperate for Tesco to come to town.
In many peoples eyes Tesco are the devil. Of course it’s understandable that we are so willing to dance with the devil. After all Streatham sold its soul long ago and now we’re just desperate to finally get something in return. However, if Tesco eventually do come good on their promise and turn that end of Streatham into Tesco land, we may still live to regret the whole sorry saga.
For a good overview on Tesco watch this Dispatches programme below.
or for a different take on Tesco’s empire building watch this excerpt from Armando Iannucci’s Time Trumpet.
I recently stumbled across the site 28 Days Later. This is a site for the type of people who like to spend their free time exploring abandoned buildings, drains and cranes as well as infiltrating active sites. In the words of one of its members ‘Alias’, “Urban Exploration and Infiltration is about learning to appreciate your surroundings and the buildings and structures around you, and seeing beauty in places where many people will not. It is also about gaining access to these places in order to document, photograph, film or just explore these places”.
Another of its members, known as ‘Speed’, recently explored the inside of the Megabowl site on Streatham Hill. These are his pictures. Unbelievably it’s been sitting derelict since August 2006, whilst its owners Glentoran are still no closer to gaining the planning permission they want. Imagine what a savvy developer could do with this place, without having to resort to the full scale demolition that Glentoran are after?
for more pictures of the disused Megabowl you can follow the links to two other members previous visits to the site here. and here.
Hey… That’s my tagline. Local MP Keith Hill has put together this event to mark his retirement. Tickets are free and can be applied for here tickets@streathamlabour.org.uk
The desire of the people of Streatham to have a Tube line has led to yet another campaign. First Labour’s prospective parliamentary candidate, Chuka Umunna, started a campaign in response to news that TfL were considering a plan to extend the Bakerloo line into Streatham. This was soon followed by resident, Kent Martin’s campaign to raise support for a Tube. Kent was backed by Chuka as well as Streatham’s current MP Keith Hill, Councillor Mark Bennett and also the Liberal Democrat’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Streatham, Chris Nicholson. Now, according to this article, in a further twist, Chris Nicholson has started his own campaign, with the slight difference that he wants to extend the Northern Line, on a new branch, south from Kennington to Streatham, via Brixton. Is this latest idea any more feasible than the other? Many would suggest it’s far less likely as the Northern Line is already running to maximum capacity and is a notoriously problematic and unpopular line. Indeed, many observers see these campaigns as political crowd pleasers with no basis in reality, being run by candidates with their eyes firmly on the upcoming election. It’s almost laughable that Labour and the Lib Dem’s have chosen the same subject to campaign on but divided themselves by picking different lines. Will the Tories join in next by arguing for a Victoria line extension from Brixton? It is blue after all.
These campaigns are the just the latest in a long list that goes back decades. None have succeeded in the past so why might they now? Well there is the fact that capacity on tubes and trains in London will have to increase to cope with demand in the future and new lines will without doubt be one of the solutions to this problem. It’s also been said that the difficulties with tunnelling through the soil prevalent in South London has been overcome by modern tunnelling methods and machinery. Therefore it is right that people are at least arguing the case for Streatham. However, the current finances of the Government, Lambeth Council and TFL surely mean that all of this will remain pure fantasy for a long long time to come. What do you think? Please let us know.
Those of you that follow Streatham Pulse on Twitter may be aware of the campaign that was started recently to get Streatham born, 1950’s comedian, Tommy Trinder to the top of Channel Four’s list of The Greatest Stand Up Comics Of All Time. The Campaign was started by Ross Noble, who is also one of the nominees. Bemused by the shortlist, which generally favours comedians from the last few years, Ross thought it might be a bit of a giggle to boost the largely forgotten comedian’s chances of topping the chart. He started his campaign on Twitter and it quickly received the backing of comedians, Alan Davies, Jason Manford, Rob Rouse and co-creator of Viz, Simon Donald, who started this Facebook Group to help the cause. Voting has now closed and we will have to wait until later in the year for Channel Four to reveal the winner, so in the mean time keep your fingers crossed for Tommy and have a look at some of his work on You Tube. Here is a video featuring Tommy presenting Sunday Night At The London Palladium in the ’50’s. After the opening dance number Tommy appears about 2.20 in where he entertains the audience with some jokes before introducing Pinky & Perky.
The blue plaque on Wellfield Road in Streatham, commemorating Tommy’s birth.
It’s hard to believe that it’s only mid January but as the snow finally melts around most of Streatham, it’s about time I included some pictures to show how stunning the place looked under a blanket of white. I stumbled across these amazing pictures of Streatham Common on John Quintero’sFlickr page. They’re the best examples I’ve found so far but if you’ve got any great pictures of your own please upload them to the Streatham Network page.
Stunning, although I think I speak for many when I saw “Enough of the snow now. Please”.
Over Christmas I saw a close friend who reminded me of the last time we bumped in to each other. It was in the Clarence in Balham several months earlier where she introduced me to fella called Christian, who lived in Streatham Hill. It turns out that Christian is one of the core members of the Streatham based band ‘The Leisure Society’. I have to admit I hadn’t heard of them before but on listening to their debut album, ‘The Sleeper’, I was pleasantly surprised to hear such quality music. As soon as I looked in to the band more I was amazed at what I found. Initially it was their background that fascinated me. Nick Hemming, the other founder member, started his musical life in a band with film maker, Shane Meadows and actor Paddy Considine. I’ve long been a fan of these two and was impressed when I discovered that Nick composed the music for Shane’s films ‘A Room For Romeo Brass’ and ‘Dead Man’s Shoes’. If you haven’t seen either of these films I’d highly recommend them. They not only cemented Shane as one of Britain’s best working directors but also launched Paddy’s career, which has led to his appearances in major films, like ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’ and ‘Hot Fuzz’. However as I found out more about them I was even more impressed. Not only have they had their music championed by several DJ’s, including Mark Radcliffe & Stuart Maconie, Dermot O’Leary and Guy Garvey of Elbow, (who named their song ‘The Last Of The Melting Snow’ as his favorite song of the year), but they have a string of prestigious awards and nominations to their name, which include the ‘iTunes UK’s Album Of The Year’ in the singer songwriter category and an Ivor Novello nomination for best song musically and lyrically. This last award was eventually won by, none other than, their number one fan Guy Garvey and his band Elbow.
This should give you enough reasons to check out the album, ‘Sleeper’, for yourselves and to look forward to their second album which is currently being recorded in the bands Ego Drain studios in Streatham Hill. Although presumably recording is mostly on hold while they complete their European Tour. You can start by watching the great video below for their song ‘Save It For Someone Who Cares’.
If anyone didn’t already know what the great mural on Leigham Court Road was, they surely must now. The classic childrens story by Maurice Sendak has been made in to a film by the already legendary director Spike Jonze, and it’s showing at the Streatham Odeon right now. Spike is the man behind Being John Malkovich, Adaptation, and some of the most well known music videos of the last fifteen years including Praise You and Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim. With that kind of track record Where The Wild Things are is sure to be worth a watch.
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